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A senior Fatah leader said here on Thursday that the Israeli-Palestinians proximity talks did not yield any progress that meets previously set conditions.

The meeting between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Tuesday did not provide any good signs, Nabil Shaath, a Fatah Central Committee member, told reporters in Cairo after meeting with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa.

Shaath and Moussa discussed the Middle East peace process and ways to achieve the Palestinian reconciliation and end the Israeli embargo imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2007.

"There has not been any progress through the indirect talks, and thus, a meeting (of the Arab Peace Initiative Follow-up Committee) requested by the Palestinian National Authority and was agreed to by Secretary-General of the Arab League, will take place soon," Shaath said, adding "that meeting will assess the whole situation and will make an Arab decision on the issue."

According to the Fatah leader, the Palestinian decision will be submitted to the Arab Peace Initiative Follow-up Committee's meeting scheduled for July 29, to coordinate a concerted Arab action.

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Hamas TV forced to halt broadcasts to Europe

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip—A France-based satellite provider is halting broadcasts of the Hamas TV channel to Europe and parts of the Arab world because of concerns that it spreads incitement, a station official said Tuesday.

The decision will deprive Gaza-based al-Aqsa TV of most of its viewers, said the channel's head, Hazem Sharawy.

The Hamas station -- best known for its children's programs glorifying violence against Israel -- is the centerpiece of a growing media operation of Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas rulers. Losing the satellite provider will hamper the group's attempts to spread its message and raise funds abroad.

The decision to cut off the Hamas station came six years after a similar move by France and the U.S. against al-Manar, the channel of Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah.

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Earnings reports could spark summertime market rally

TORONTO — Investors could find a reason to extend last week's strong advance on North American stock markets if U.S. second-quarter corporate earnings, the first of which are expected Monday, live up to high expectations.

"If we can get some confirmation from the earnings and then the stocks rally on that, it will be a very good sign that we'll have a decent summer," said Blair Falconer, portfolio manager at HSBC Securities.

North American markets finished higher last week, with the TSX up 3.34 per cent and the Dow industrials ahead 5.28 per cent as bargain hunters moved in following big slides of over four per cent the previous week.

Projected profits rise as stocks fall

NEW YORK — Analysts are raising earnings estimates for U. S. companies at the fastest rate since at least 2004 during a quarter when stocks have posted some of their biggest losses in 16 months on concern that the economy will sink back into a recession.

Profit for companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index now are expected to jump 34 percent this year, according to more than 8,000 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. On March 29, the projected increase had been 27 percent. The revision is the greatest during any quarter in at least six years.

But lower-than-forecast home sales, manufacturing and private-sector job growth have sent the benchmark gauge for U. S. equities down 11 percent since hitting 1,217 April 23, despite last week’s rally.

Qassam hits building in southern community

A Qassam rocket landed near a building in one of the communities in the Sdot Negev Regional Council early Wednesday, causing damage to a packing-house. There were no reports of injuries.

Avi Aptelboim, head of the community's emergency squad, reported that "a Color Red siren was sounded at around 4 am, followed by a rocket which landed inside the community, near the packing-house. The packing-house sustained heavy damage and it won't be operated today. There were no injuries, thank God."

"The rocket landed right next to the packing-house.The equipment near the packing-house was damaged, and the building itself sustained damage from shrapnel," said one of the residents.

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The cost of the United States' wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost taxpayers more than one trillion dollars as of June 1, according to a report published by a nonprofit organization "National Priorities Project".

The group, National Priorities Project, conveyed the size of US war spending by highlighting other things that could have been bought with the money. For example, for the price of America's two wars, the US could give grants to all of America's 19 million college students for the next nine years. One trillion would also pay the annual salaries of 21 million policemen, the group says.

According to the report, the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, which began in October 2001 and March 2003 respectively, are the most expensive military operations the US forces have ever conducted abroad since the end of the Second World War.

Obama says new U.S. sanctions on Iran toughest ever

Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law on Thursday far-reaching new sanctions on Iran that aim to squeeze the Islamic Republic's fuel imports and deepen its international isolation.

Obama said the new sanctions were the toughest ever passed by the U.S. Congress and would make it harder for Iran to buy refined petroleum as well as goods and services to modernize its oil and natural gas sector, the mainstay of its economy.

While the door to diplomacy remained open, he said, Iran would come under even greater international pressure if it continued to defy international calls to halt its uranium enrichment program.

The United States and its European allies suspect Iran is trying to build an atomic bomb, despite Tehran's insistence that its nuclear program is for the peaceful generation of electricity.

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Gen McChrystal removed

WASHINGTON - US PRESIDENT Barack Obama yesterday removed his top US commander in Afghanistan following a public flap over the general's controversial remarks to a magazine.

The unceremonious exit of General Stanley McChrystal injected greater uncertainty into the troubled war effort, taking place just as the United States was about to launch a major offensive in and around the key southern Afghan city of Kandahar, the stronghold of the Taleban.

Gen McChrystal, who derided the Obama administration and its handling of the war in Afghanistan in a lengthy profile in the Rolling Stone magazine, was summoned to the White House yesterday to explain his remarks.

After a 30-minute face-to-face meeting, Mr Obama said he accepted the resignation of the petulant general and relieved him of his command of US forces in Afghanistan. 'It was a difficult decision, it saddens me to lose a soldier who I've come to respect and admire,' said Mr Obama, noting that the decision was not prompted by the 'personal insult'.

'But war is bigger than any one man or woman. Difficult as this is, it is the right decision for our national security.'